Head to head · Girls' names
Brynn vs Lana
#407 vs #406 in 2025
Lana is a whisker ahead (#406 vs #407 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Lana is holding its place on the charts, Brynn is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Lana leads 5 measures of 6; Brynn leads 0.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Brynn —, Lana #950 — Lana higher
- 1890s: Brynn —, Lana #1104 — Lana higher
- 1900s: Brynn —, Lana #1486 — Lana higher
- 1910s: Brynn —, Lana #1922 — Lana higher
- 1920s: Brynn —, Lana #1826 — Lana higher
- 1930s: Brynn —, Lana #1872 — Lana higher
- 1940s: Brynn #3268, Lana #220 — Lana higher
- 1950s: Brynn #4213, Lana #293 — Lana higher
- 1960s: Brynn #3785, Lana #315 — Lana higher
- 1970s: Brynn #3274, Lana #414 — Lana higher
- 1980s: Brynn #927, Lana #568 — Lana higher
- 1990s: Brynn #1013, Lana #942 — Lana higher
- 2000s: Brynn #435, Lana #571 — Brynn higher
- 2010s: Brynn #257, Lana #403 — Brynn higher
- 2020s: Brynn #381, Lana #398 — Brynn higher
Lana stood higher in 12 of 15 decades; Brynn has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Brynn | Lana |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | — | #950 |
| 1890s | — | #1104 |
| 1900s | — | #1486 |
| 1910s | — | #1922 |
| 1920s | — | #1826 |
| 1930s | — | #1872 |
| 1940s | #3268 | #220 |
| 1950s | #4213 | #293 |
| 1960s | #3785 | #315 |
| 1970s | #3274 | #414 |
| 1980s | #927 | #568 |
| 1990s | #1013 | #942 |
| 2000s | #435 | #571 |
| 2010s | #257 | #403 |
| 2020s | #381 | #398 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Brynn
Not charting outside the US.
Lana
- France#97
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Brynn
hill (Welsh)
Welsh bryn is an ordinary landscape word, still in everyday use, and it sits inside longer names such as Brynmor, 'great hill'. The doubled -nn is an English-language respelling rather than a separate word.
bryn (Welsh for hill) → Bryn → Brynn
How it traveled
The root is the common Welsh noun bryn, hill, which is why it turns up so often on maps: Bryn Mawr, 'big hill', Brynmawr in Gwent, and the Pennsylvania Bryn Mawr that Welsh settlers named after a farm back home. As a personal name, Bryn was taken up in Wales during the twentieth century for boys, sometimes as a short form of Brynmor.
Lana
Depends on which Lana: 'light' through Svetlana, or 'calm, buoyant' in Hawaiian
Several genuine roads meet at this spelling. In Russian and across the Balkans, Lana is the everyday short form of Svetlana, from a root meaning 'light'; it also clips Milana and Alana. In Hawaiian, lana is a word meaning 'floating, buoyant, calm'. In Latin and its descendants — Italian, Spanish — lana simply means 'wool'. None of these cancels the others; the name arrived in English from more than one direction.
Svetlana → Lana
How it traveled
The Slavic line is the best documented: Svetlana became widespread in Russia in the nineteenth century, and Lana is its ordinary short form, still used that way in Russia, Croatia and Serbia, where Lana also stands alone as a full given name. In English, the name came in largely by a different door — as a clipping of Alana, the feminine of the Irish and Breton name Alan, and then through American film, when a young contract actress was given Lana as a screen name in the late 1930s.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Brynn
BRIN
Rhymes with win. The Welsh y in bryn is a short i, so the English and Welsh pronunciations agree; there is no second syllable and no ambiguity to explain.
- Bryn — The single-n spelling used as an informal shortening; also a standalone given name, chiefly for men in Wales.
- Brynnie — Affectionate family form, mostly used with young children rather than in adult or formal settings.
- B — Initial-only, used the way any single-syllable name gets reduced among friends.
Lana
LAH-nuh
LAH-nuh is the dominant pronunciation in the US and matches the Slavic original. Some American families say LAN-uh, rhyming with Anna. Both are established, so it is worth deciding which one you mean early — people will ask.
- Lanie — The most common affectionate extension; also spelled Laney and used on its own as a given name.
- Lala — A family-only nickname, mostly used with small children.
- Lan — Rare and informal in English; Lan is a separate given name in Vietnamese and Chinese.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Brynn if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsBrynn is stepping back from its peak
- a name with fewer syllablesBrynn is 1 syllable to Lana's 2
Choose Lana if you want…
- a name with more sound in itLana runs 2 syllables, Brynn 1
- a name that charts abroad tooLana is on the national lists of France
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Brynn
Strengths
- One syllable, phonetic, and pronounced the same by English and Welsh speakers alike — nobody has to be corrected twice.
- The meaning is plain and documented: hill, from an ordinary Welsh word still in daily use.
- On American records for generations before it became fashionable, so it is neither new nor tied to one moment.
To consider
- Bryn, Brynn, Brynne and Brinn are all in circulation, so expect to spell it aloud — short work, but a lifelong habit.
- In Wales and among Welsh speakers, Bryn is a man's name. A Brynn traveling in Britain may meet men who share the sound.
- It grew alongside a crowded set of similar openings — Brynlee, Brinley, Brielle — and can be misheard as one of them on a first introduction.
Lana
Strengths
- Spelled exactly as it sounds, and short enough that no one needs it repeated or abbreviated on a form.
- Works unchanged in Russian, Croatian, Serbian and French, where it also currently charts — useful in a bilingual family.
- A long, level record rather than a fashion spike: represented across several generations of living Americans, not concentrated in one.
To consider
- Two live pronunciations, LAH-nuh and LAN-uh, means a lifetime of small corrections unless you are relaxed about either.
- The singer Lana Del Rey is the strongest current association in the US, and for some listeners the name will call up her music before anything else.
- In Spanish and Italian, lana is the ordinary word for wool. Harmless, but Spanish-speaking relatives will notice it.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Brynn and Lana in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- One-syllable names: said in a single beat
- France's favorites still rare in America
- Midcentury modern: tomorrow's comeback bets
- Slavic names with soft power
- all guides
Where Brynn and Lana each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Brynn or Lana — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Brynn or Lana?
- Lana, in 2025: Lana ranked #406 with 768 babies; Brynn ranked #407 with 767 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Brynn or Lana?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Brynn moved down 74 places; Lana moved down 13 places.
- Which is the older name, Brynn or Lana?
- Brynn entered the US charts in 1943; Lana entered the US charts in 1885. On the American record, Lana is the older name.
- How many people are named Brynn and Lana?
- About 29,500 people named Brynn are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 50,000 people named Lana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Brynns or Lanas in the classroom?
- Brynn will almost certainly be the only one in school. Lana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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